Audio/video teleconferencing has become an important and effective method of communication between individuals and groups over great distances. While prior (“legacy”) audio/video teleconferencing systems have provided improvements over audio-only conferencing methods (for example, telephone conferencing), the difference between in-person conferences and the legacy audio/video teleconference systems remains substantial.
It is known that a significant amount of communication between individuals occurs in non-verbal form (such as eye contact, facial expressions, “body language”, hand gestures, and other non-verbal cues). It has been found that the legacy teleconferencing systems do not effectively convey such non-verbal communication. Thus, there is a need for an improved teleconferencing system and method that more closely imitates an in-person conference.
The telepresence system and method of the present invention fulfill the need for an improved audio/video teleconferencing system by providing telepresence conference rooms which closely mimic an in-person conference, and by providing a system and method for automatically operating conferences held between such telepresence conference rooms, including the scheduling, configuration, initiation, diagnosis, monitoring, fault correction, and termination of such conferences. The telepresence system and method may also incorporate legacy teleconference rooms into a telepresence conference.